British Virgin Islands Risks Losing Autonomy After Premier’s Drug Bust
British Virgin Islands Risks Losing Autonomy After Premier’s Drug Bust
(Bloomberg) -- The day after British Virgin Islands Premier Andrew Fahie was arrested in Miami on drug charges, U.K. officials announced a proposal to strip local authorities of their power for two years.
BVI Governor John Rankin, the Queen’s representative to the territory, said in a speech Friday that a “Commission of Inquiry” had concluded that corruption, abuse of office and other “serious dishonesty” may have taken place in recent years.
“Unless the most urgent and drastic steps are taken, the current situation with elected officials deliberately ignoring the tenets of good governance will go on indefinitely,” Rankin said. “The people of the BVI deserve better.”
If the recommendations are approved, the BVI’s House of Assembly and local ministries would be dissolved and the governor, an appointed official, would lead the Caribbean territory of 30,000 people for two years.
The corruption probe began in 2021 and was unrelated to the drug trafficking allegations, Rankin said. The commission was originally scheduled to release its recommendations in June, but expedited the process after Fahie’s detention.
Fahie was arrested on Thursday in a sting at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport after exiting a plane containing $700,000 in cash, according to a U.S. criminal complaint. Among the allegations is that he conspired to ship thousands of kilos of cocaine to the U.S. hidden inside paint cans.
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